Every season brings an avalanche of covers of seasonal standards and would-be standards, as well as an avalanche of new seasonal songs hoping to join the select group. But, from time to time, a Christmas here or there will bring a reminder of a great song that you know--and that you may even have--but that you've forgotten about. A few years back, we saw the revival of a song frequently associated with Claudine Longet, but written and originally recorded by Margo Guryan--"I Don't Intend To Spend Christmas Without You". This past year, a cover version from one of Indie Pop's most endearing and (possibly) enduring groups, The Very Most, reminded everyone of a terrific, if largely forgotten, 60s winter song--"The Coldest Night of The Year".

"The Coldest Night Of The Year" was written by the same songwriting team that gave us "On Broadway" and "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling", the husband and wife team of Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil (who also wrote "Christmas Vacation" for the Chevy Chase film of the same name). The two met at Don Kirshner's song writing mill, Aldon Music in the famous Brill Building, and married in 1961. Whatever else anyone tells you, the song was first recorded by brother and sister duo Nino Tempo & April Stevens. But Nino and April recorded "The Coldest Night Of The Year" when they were finishing up their contract with Atco, anxious to move on, and Atco was just as happy to see them go. There was no promotion for the 1965 single and it failed to chart.

Even if Nino and April recorded it first, there is no question that the definitive version of "The Coldest Night Of The Year" was recorded in 1966 by British duo Twice As Much with the help of a then unknown folk singer Vashti Bunyan.

Vashti Bunyan

London born Vashti Bunyan had studied art at Oxford but was ultimately expelled for failing to attend any classes. Inspired by the music of Bob Dylan, she decided to pursue a career in music. Vashti's delicate voice and tall and slender figure had some envisioning her as Britain's answer to Francoise Hardy. Vashti recorded a pair of singles on her own and "The Coldest Night Of The Year" with Twice As Much in the mid-60s (though the latter wasn't released until 1968). In 1970, Vashti's first full-length album was released. "Just Another Diamond Day" received some critical praise but sold only a handful of copies. Discouraged, Vashti left music entirely, moved to the countryside and raised a family.

Over time, though, and unbeknownst to Vashti, "Just Another Diamond Day" grew into a cult classic--an album that commanded as much as $2000 on eBay. By the time the album wasre-released on CD in 2000, there was a full-blown Vashti renaissance underway. Vashti returned to music and finally cut her sophomore album,"Lookaftering", in 2005. 2007 saw the CD release of all of Vashti'smid 60s recordings and demos, including "The Coldest Night Of The Year".

"The Coldest Night Of The Year" was essentially a reworking of the song "Baby, It's Cold Outside", except that the male in the song is begging to stay rather than trying to trick the female into staying. I'm not the first to remark that "Baby, It's Cold Outside" is a little bit creepy and misogynist. Mann and Weil's version of the concept removes that icky aspect and, suddenly, it's truly cute and cuddle worthy. Since there weren't a lot of seasonal songs being written in that very musically distinctive period, Mann and Weil's trademark 60s Pop/R&B sound is also a plus. And what ultimately sets the Vashti Bunyan version apart from the rest is the rawness of it; it has what almost seems, in retrospect, an Indie Lo-Fi vibe. Very cool! Vashti also infuses the song with an innocence and sincerity that is unmatched before or since.

Speaking of "since", there have been covers of the song though few have left a mark. Back in 1997, San Francisco's Indie Pop trio The Virgin-Whore Complex took a stab at it. Several years later, in a sort of Back To The Future maneuver, Lou Christie covered the song as a kind of companion piece for his own "Christmas In New York".The She of She & Him, Zooey Deschanel, has been known to perform the song, though it was not included on the pair's recent Christmas album (which seems an opportunity lost). As previously noted, The Very Most included a cover in their 2011 EP "Snow Covered". And we've spotted at least one more version, recorded in 2010 by Indie artists Gordon Merrick & Cilla Danone. Just as "White Christmas" will always belong to Bing, though, "The Coldest Night Of The Year" will always belong to Vashti Bunyan. Or, at least, it should.

Sonny Til and The Orioles began as the Vibranaires in their home town of Baltimore in 1947. Changing their names to that of the state bird the following year, The Orioles stripped away the orchestral arrangements then in vogue with vocal groups like The Ink Spots and Mills Brothers. The group's breakthrough single, 1948's "It's Too Soon To Know" (written by their manager Deborah Chessler) is described in terms reserved for those monumental records that changed the course of musical history, such as "That's All Right Mama" by Elvis Presley. It came out of nowhere, immediately shot to #1 R&B and even crossed over to the pop charts, a feat rarely accomplished by African-American groups at the time. Doo Wop was born. The Orioles closed out 1948 with a seasonal song, "Lonely Christmas", the first ever Doo Wop Christmas recording. The following year, they brought back "Lonely Christmas", which had reached #8 R&B in 1948, pairing it with a Tin Pan Alley song written by Frank Loesser.

Frank Loesser never saw "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?" as a seasonal song, let alone a New Year's standard. In fact, it upset him to no end every time someone performed the song in a winter context. To Loesser, his 1947 composition was a spring song--a song about a beginning, not an end.

Frank Loesser was born in New York City in 1910. Loesser, the son of a pianist, dropped out of college after one year and, ultimately, found himself performing in clubs with his future wife, Lynn Blankenbaker Garland. Universal Pictures signed him in 1936 and he wrote some memorable lyrics for the movies up until the war. It was after the war that Loesser truly made his mark, writing the songs for hit Broadway musicals such as Guys & Dolls and How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying, winning Tony Awards galore and, in 1962, a Pulitzer. He also continued writing for the movies. Among his greatest contributions was a number Loesser had written in 1944 specifically for he and his wife to perform at parties--"Baby, It's Cold Outside". When MGM wanted a full score from Loesser for the 1949 film Neptune's Daughter, he included the now classic duet. "Baby, It's Cold Outside" won Loesser an Oscar.

As far as can be determined, Margaret Whiting was the first to record "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?"--in 1947. But The Orioles were the first to chart with the song. In the more than 60 years since the Orioles recording, and in complete opposition to Loesser's thoughts about his own song, "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?" has become THE standard of New Year's songs. If "Auld Lang Syne" is the holiday's "Jingle Bells", "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?" is most certainly it's "White Christmas".

For my second entry in the Essentials, I knew I wanted to spotlight something that didn't have universal acceptance as "essential", but something that was nonetheless very high up on my personal list of songs or albums that I simply must listen to every Christmas. Fate (or something) intervened when someone in the forums at FaLaLaLaLa.com requested versions of "Good King Wenceslas". I know some good ones, including several very recent, but this is the only version I consider personally indispensable.

For the first 30 or so years of my life, this song was just one of those ancient carols that sounded like fingernails on a chalkboard. Good King blah blah blah blah blah yeah yeah shut up already. Oh, my God, will you people never stop that awful noise? Deep and crisp and even. Every version sounded to me like a bad Salvation Army band.

In 1990, I was going through a New Age phase and bought this album as much for its title as anything else. At this late date, I can recall nothing else of the Ekimi album; but their version of "Good King Wenceslas" was instantly unforgettable. Because they did the song as a spoken piece, I understood what the words meant and what the song was about for the very first time.

A little background that most likely won't care about, but some may. Wenceslas was actually a Duke, not a King-- the Duke of Bohemia (what is now part of the Czech Republic) to be precise. Duke Wenceslas was beloved by his subjects as a kind, generous and pious man. In particular, the Duke loved Christmas. Every Christmas Eve, he would call his pages to gather food, firewood and clothing and they would give them to the neediest of his people. Wenceslas would then encourage others among the rich to do likewise. Wenceslas was ultimately killed by his own brother when he was only 28, famously saying "Brother, may God forgive you." Wenceslas' brother had been put up to the deed by the pagans, but, seeing what he had done, Boleslaus turned from them and spent the remainder of his life carrying out the good works his brother had started. Duke Wenceslas was later decreed a Saint. The tales of Saint Winceslas were written down and carried far and wide. In the mid 1800's, Reverend John Mason Neale, a hymn-writer, decided that the tale of Wenceslas would be a fitting way to teach others of Christian charity. His words (a translation of the written Czech stories) were put to an old tune believed to be of Scandanavian origin, "Tempus Adest Floridum", and published in 1853.

Ekimi was primarily the collaberation of two classically trained musicians from Cincinnati, Chris Dahlgren and Billy Larkin. They wanted to explore new musical interpretations and thought Christmas music would be ideal for that. "The Next Noel" was issued on the California Music-West label. The pair recorded a few more albums as Ekimi on their own Krysdahlark label before splitting. Both moved firmly into Jazz music. Dahlgren moved to Berlin in 2004 where he teaches music and plays with his current group Lexicon. Larkin is still in Cincinnati where he currently plays with the group Triage. For "Good King Wenceslas", they called upon Gary Barton for the dramatic reading.

"The Next Noel" is, sadly, very much out of print. Nor does it appear to be available digitally. The good news is that it's not especially rare, so, if you're interested, you should be able to find a copy at a reasonable price.

ESSENTIALS

There are just some albums and tracks you either can not do without or should not do without. The "Essentials" are those records and CDs and songs and artists that are bound to make it to my record player or CD changer every Christmas. They come with my highest recommendations.